Football: Airtel Cup - St Louis hold off St Michel’s challenge |13 July 2018
2017 Airtel cup finalist and double winners St Louis held off the challenge of their fierce rivals St Michel in a 4-2 triumph in a Group B encounter at Stad Linite on Wednesday afternoon in front of a large crowd.
This eagerly awaited saints’ clash began in sombre mood as a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the passing away of the St Louis captain Bertrand Esther’s sister this week.
St Michel then made an explosive start to the match as Alvin Larue surged into the St Louis half and was pulled down by Juninho Mathiot who was booked by referee Alistair Barra with 20 seconds on the clock.
Malagasy Hassan Aly rolled the resulting free kick to his countryman Francis whose shot was deflected into corner.
Malagasy Evariste floated the corner kick and there was captain Alex Nibourette who rose above everyone to guide his header into the roof of the net for a sensational 1-0 lead in the opening minute.
St Louis though got their acts together and levelled the score in the 11th minute from a curling free kick by Roddy Melanie into a crowded penalty area as the ball found refuge into the bottom corner of goalie Gino Melanie’s net for a 1-1 score.
St Louis then went on to dominate proceedings and in the 14th minute, Melanie floated a corner which was headed down to Malagasy Tahiry by Mathiot and the Malagasy’s hooked shot sailed over the cross bar.
St Louis took the lead in the 16th minute after the St Michel captain Nibourette gave away a cheap free kick with a push in the back of Melanie on his team’s penalty edge.
Nigerian forward Kazeem Adeyeri took responsibility for the free kick and cleverly slotted the ball low into bottom corner for a 2-1 advantage.
St Michel tried to comeback in this match and in the 26th minute, Evariste rifled a low shot which forced goalie Michel to dive low to push the ball into corner.
The players of coach Rodney Choisy levelled matters in his half in the 33rd minute as captain Nibourette let fly a strong shot which came off St Louis skipper Damien Maria and fell to Nelson Laurence who diverted the ball into the net for a 2-2 score.
St Louis should have gone ahead again in the 36th minute from Melanie’s free kick into the St Michel penalty to Karl Hall who directed his header to Adeyeri who looked odds on to score but he amazingly blazed wide with the goal at his mercy, leaving the score at 2-2 at half time.
St Louis restored their advantage five minutes into the second period when Mathiot won the ball in midfield to link up with Malagasy Tahiry.
Tahiry threaded a beautiful ball to Adeyeri who glided past his marker Perry Bijoux to thump the ball past goalie Melanie for his brace and a 3-2 score.
In the 57th minute, Collin Bibi picked up a loose ball from the St Michel defence to spread the ball out to Melanie who sent in an inch perfect cross to Hall who hit the target with a superb volley to make it 4-2.
St Michel made a series of substitutions in an attempt to bolster their attack but it was St Louis who nearly added a fifth when substitute Achille Henriette, on his return to his former stomping ground, laid the ball to Adeyeri in the 76th minute whose stinging shot crashed against the post.
However St Louis had done enough to hold off the challenge of their big rivals St Michel to win their second match in this pool to please coach Michel Renaud.
“It was an interesting match where we wanted to win so as to keep us in a strong position to qualify for the quarter final. The players also were determined to win to dedicate it to our colleague Bertrand in his moment of sadness. However our opponent worked hard to win this match but we did enough to win the three points though there is still a lot of work to be done,” noted coach Renaud.
As for the St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis, he felt his team put in a good display with the available players for this match.
“We are generally satisfied with our performances as we had a makeshift defence which performed admirably though we gave away some sloppy goals. But there are encouraging signs and we are hopeful of improving our results in the coming matches,” the St Michel manager related to Sports NATION.
R.J-L.